Three Hundred
by BlackwaterCanon
Summary: This story answers all the questions that SM did not answer in Breaking Dawn. Includes Tanyas mother and the immortal child, Vicotria before and how she meets James and finally Alice's conversion and meeting Jasper and introducing herself to the cullens!
1. Chapter 1

"I don't know if it be a peculiarity in me, but I am seldom otherwise than happy while watching in the chamber of death, should no frenzied or despairing mourner share the duty with me. I see a repose that neither earth nor hell can break; and I feel an assurance of the endless and shadowless hereafter - the Eternity they have entered - where life is boundless in its duration, and love in its sympathy, and joy in its fullness."  
-Wuthering heights by Emily Bronte.

In my 300 years as a vampire, I would have never dreamed that I would have found myself in this place. But if this stopped him then it was worth it. I was not a fighter but the sweeping bloodlust returned to me now and I tried to tame the monster within. I had to be strong enough, I just had to be..... I stood in an unfamiliar picture, with the loaded gun in the hand of someone that I loved and I knew that the next round was the lethal one, as I had clicked away though the empty chambers, giving me a reprieve. But now, I desperately needed to do something, for I had clicked though the chambers, not her and I took the gun out of her hand, and held it to my head, and pulled the trigger, but not without destroying the rest of the bullets first....

First sight

As I crossed the secluded street, I suddenly found that I was not alone. She stood, confronting me with the most amazed look on her face. My grip on Vasilli tightened. He was all I had left now and for some reason this seemed more important than ever. Her jet black hair perfectly mimicked the colour of mine as she coiled and sprang forth, plunging me into darkness, but not before I heard Vasilli scream.  
The hideous fire contorted me for three days, and then as the beating of my frenzied heart quickened, and the last tongues of flame faltered, she called my name. "Altey, Atley Darling can you hear me?" but she had it wrong. It was all wrong, it felt wrong. It was then that I opened my eyes, really. I could see the refraction of white light and hear the ships sailing into the harbour. Yes, something was definitely wrong. "What has happened to me?" I asked her with a tremor.  
" Dear boy I'm sorry but you have not come to an age of enlightenment, but reality lies back with the mythical lands. Atley you have become the most feared of all the... " I cut her off. She had said it again. Atley?

The name on my birth certificate said Atley John Wells, but I was adopted at age three when my mother disappeared and my father remarried. I would forever be William Donaldson, besides, who in the world would know me as that? "My name is William, Madam, but how did you know about Atley?"  
"Dear boy, I was the one whom chose it for you, who loved you and carried you, who......." she couldn't finish but I knew that at last, after 22 years, my mother had come back for me.


	2. Learning Curve

Learning Curve

My new life was surely challenging. Not that I hadn't faced challenges in my old life. In my orphanage I had been stuck in a room of ratty kids my own age, smothered in flea ridden blankets and rickety old beds between us. I always knew that my name was Atley but the other children laughed and suggested that it was a good thing that my parents had left me. That no parents in their right mind would choose the name Atley. And so I was dubbed William by the newly widowed Sister Jones, after her husband. It seemed that William Jones was looking after me and I got lucky three days after. The Donaldson's had lost children and couldn't have anymore so I became like their own. Their grand manor house became my playground and I became the little prince. I never yearned for anything from then on and my orphan life, seemed nothing but a bad, but very vivid dream. But my life was nothing until I met Adelaide Green. She stunned me from the minute I saw her, begging on the street. I was immediately reminded of my orphaned life. I had found another abandoned soul and it was my duty to look after her. She didn't believe me at first. She thought that I would hurt her, but eventually she came to trust me. I secured her hand three weeks later, much to the shock of my parents. Although I was adopted, they still looked down their noses at her and yet like Romeo and Juliet, we were married by morning. Twelve months later, Adelaide gave birth to Vasilli. I had everything in life that had seemed important just melted away when I saw my son. As he grew, he had perfect small features and vivid blue eyes like his mother, yet his hair was straight sleek and black just like mine. I loved my life with Adelaide and Vasilli and finding her pregnant again was more than  
I could have dreamed. But like with all dreams, sometimes you just have to wake up to the cold hard reality. One morning I awoke to hear her screaming, anxiously for me to help. She had gone into labour. I called the chamber maid and gathered all the warm clothes that I could find. Vas helped me anxiously though he was more a hindrance than a help at just two. And then Adelaide screamed again, but this time it was different. I dropped the towels and tore into the front room. The maid was delivering the baby and then suddenly Adelaide was silent. She slumped forward limply. I shook her and tried to wake her to no avail. I had truly woken. It was only then that the maid brought a small bundle towards me. My child. But something was wrong. Where was the face? But then I realised. I had lost two members of my family. She slowly unwrapped the bundle, revealing a perfectly still little girl. Mary. Adelaide had been right. But they would be together again now, but we would not be with them. I tried to be strong for Vas but the emotional scars ripped me up inside. We paid our respects to Adelaide and Baby Mary and continued somewhat with our lives. But it was never the same.

I struggled with what I had become. I knew before that I could live my life, that maybe I would have found someone else and loved her. But what really kept me going was the fact that when I died, we would be a family again. But now I could not die and would be stuck here forever. Sasha explained that she was indeed my mother. She was beaten by my father and had to leave me. That she trusted a beautiful man with her life and he betrayed that. She had spent the past 22 years perfecting her self control so that she could come back for me. She told me that she preyed on humans, but that she always made sure not to hunt those men with black hair, she was so sure she would find me? Like i should be flattered that she loved me that much. But I could not tear families apart because of the dull ache I urged to satisfy. I hated my life and what I had become.

At that point it came to me. I would drink the blood of animals. But it only occurred to me later that I had what Sasha called a gift. I could find the best possible outcomes for bad situations. It was like seeing the future, or a heightened sense of intuition. But only dire situations. I couldn't find any help when my clothes didn't match but at least I had saved the lives of many humans. These problems seemed nothing compared to my fights with Sasha. She had done to Vasilli what she had done to me. Wrecking any chance of having a normal happy life. But my self control was not matched by him. My little boy, always had a temper but before the worst that could happen was that I would lock him away for a minute while he calmed down, but now, innocent lives were being ruined. Sasha loved him unconditionally but to the extreme that she forgave his mistakes. Though I loved him, he had his problems, though through and through he was my son.


	3. 3 Registration

Registration

As we ran through the snowy wilderness, Vasillli's face snapped up. I froze, I smelt the familiar odour of animal on the horizon. "Vasilli, do you smell that?" I paused hoping this would work today, though it hadn't in the past. "For Papa, Vas please, go and catch the Bear"  
He lurched forward and killed the animal. The sight of a three year old slaughtering an animal of its size, was indeed disturbing but I hoped with all of my stone heart that it was only the bear that he hunted tonight. Soon he left me to hunt alone but I spent the time reflecting. Someone was going to notice Vasilli's eating habits. But Sasha didn't care. She had everything in her life that she wanted. She had her precious little boy that I should have been. But she ignored the fact that he was out of control. She was adoring of his every move and there was no doubt that she was oblivious to his problems. Though in fact I was not. I needed to do something and he needed to be under control but how? I decided to take him somewhere there were no humans would be, though I wasn't quite sure where that was... but I went out trying to find it.

When I saw him in the morning his eyes were not the amber that mine were now, they were blood-red. "Vasilli what have you done? You know that it is wrong to hunt humans!"  
His responsive snarl shook the windows "What are we going to do with you? You cannot keep this up!" I snatched him up in my arms to keep him from wrecking the furniture, but he wrested away from me. He flung a set of drawers in my direction before powering out the door. I ignored my son. He would be back soon enough, who knows how many he will have killed before he gets back. I sighed as I started picking up the bits of paper. Suddenly curiosity got to me. I read the names on the papers. They were birth registrations. The names were Sasha, Tanya, Kate and Irina Cross. That Sasha was there was no surprise. It was her house, but she told me that she had solely spent her time alone, and tracking me, but Tanya, Kate and Irina were registered as her nieces. My mother was an only child. Suddenly Sasha's care for me seemed utterly transparent.


	4. Family Values

Family Values

For a time, I ignored the registration papers, keeping up my life with Sasha and Vasilli. Though she frustrated me, she did love me. But sometimes, people's common sense is clouded by love. Sasha was determined to give Vasilli a "Normal Life". She makes him immortal at three and expects him to have any sense of normality. Though I continued my search for an isolated home, Sasha became suspicious. She took Vasilli out more and more to places that you would take a normal toddler. She took him to the tailor and fitted him with little sailor outfits and bought him all the toys under the sun, fulfilling what seemed to be her wildest dreams. Though these outings soon became my worst nightmare. His sailor suits were adorned with specks of blood after every outing. But I played my part. Soon Vasilli and I would be living alone once more, I had found the perfect place in an isolated corner of the world, perfectly uninhabited. I was just putting away the papers when they walked in the door. Vasilli was wearing a different suit this time. Perhaps the sailor man was done making outfits. Sasha sat down to the table, her Ruby eyes appearing black with thirst. I had decided that there was one thing that I could do before I left. "Sasha, there is something that I could like to talk to you about...." she turned to me at once, with a frantic look on her face.  
"What is it my darling? What can I do for my Atley?" God I hated that name. I would forever be William. Adelaide had called me William...  
"Sasha, I know that when you were looking for me, you said that you spent your time alone and you only hunted humans who didn't look like me, but what if you didn't hunt humans at all..." She stared at me wild eyed, looking guilty. Yes I knew that she had not been alone, but it didn't matter now, now that we were leaving. She had been my mother once, but through no fault of her own, she was not now.  
"Does this have something to do with the strange colour of your eyes, my dear?" she scanned deep into my eyes, looking shocked, as if she was noticing only for the first time. But she had spent so much time enchanted by Vasilli that she hadn't noticed I didn't hunt in her company. "Is this to do with your gift?" she questioned. She was definitely confused.  
"Yes, I hate the thought of a family being broken up over our needs" I paused looking for her reaction "I want you to try drinking the blood of animals, I have been doing so my whole existence and..." she cut me off.  
"My Darling boy! How clever you are, of course the life of humans is something to be preserved. But it is not who we are." I knew that it would come to this, and I played my cards carefully. " If you won't do it for me, do it for Vasilli! Don't think that I haven't noticed the mess he causes, and I know that you love him, but he is out of control, I feel that he blood of animals makes us more civil." She looked at me as if I had slapped her. She swept out of the room with a flick of her hair and stormed across the yard. I hoped that it would work.  
She reappeared in the morning and to my surprise, her eyes seemed to be more ochre than red. I thought smugly that maybe my gift extended better than first thought. Maybe i had the power to achieve the right solution to my will. But now was not the time for soul searching. "Something that you would like to tell me Sasha?" My feelings towards her warmed as she had listened for once.  
"I tried it my dear, and though the taste isn't right" she shook her head to herself, " it is clever, I just wish that I had found this earlier".  
She sounded excited and prounced over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders "We must try it with Vas!!" she smiled and fluttered off. Good luck with that, I thought to myself as I looked over at my son, his handsome outfit covered in the tailors' blood.  
It didn't occour to me until about a month later, just as i made the final preparations that Sasha had spent a long time away from the home that afternoon and I figured that maybe it had something to do with those registration papers. As she gathered her hat and coat that were primarily for appearances sake and I decided that it was time to find out.


	5. Discovery

Discovery

I gave her fifteen minutes. Though this time seems short compared to the eternity of my life, it was agonising. When I said that my son had a temper, it was an inherited thing, that and impatience. Finally the time was up and I followed her scent through the forest and along the coast, and finally it stopped outside a Idyllic cottage. On the lawn, covered in snow were three blondes. That they were vampires was obvious, the smooth skin and ringing voices. As she strode across the lawn, the Blondes raised from the ground and flung themselves at her. "Where have you been Sash?" the strawberry blonde asked her. For a minute Sasha looked guilty, but then she regained her composure and laughing mysteriously. "Thats none of your business Tanya!". So the strawberry blonde was Tanya. And it didn't take a genius to figure out who the other two were. They were so comfortable with each other, and i knew that though she wanted to save me enough, i wasn't her only creation. She was their leader, the queen. And who did that make me?

I somehow found myself back home, though it wouldn't be for much longer. I started packing my belongings with astonishing pace. Then, I packed Vasilli's belongings and on a whim, I packed the registration papers and then went to get Vasilli who was playing on the grass, lopping trees. Bless him. Soon we would be far enough away that it wouldn't matter. But when i got into the garden, he wasn't there. She had seen me and taken him. I dumped the bags and raced towards the home of the blondes. But I stopped in a clearing of the forest, catching a new scent. An unfamiliar scent, and there was more, fifteen or twenty more. I approached the cottage with caution. And that's when I saw them. Their black coats stood out vividly against the white snow. And then the flames stood out even more vividly. Sasha stood on top of the mountain clutching Vasilli and sprang forth into a crouch. The black cloak's advanced like a wall of steel and suddenly there was a gasp and I noticed the blondes standing huddled in horror. Then I saw what they were gasping at. Sasha was shrivelled up on the floor screaming in pain and Vasilli suffered alongside her. It was over within a flash and a horrible metallic screech and they both erupted in thick hazy flames. Suddenly the air was filled with a lingering, sickening smell, and I had to escape, but before I stared at the blondes, and the last thing I saw was the short haired blonde, (who was either Kate or Irina)'s face went blank when a chalk pale hand touched her. The last thing i saw were her deep ochre eyes. Sasha had listened after all. And now her and Vasilli, my only family, however problematic they were, are gone. And rightfully, I had never been so alone in my existence.

For the next three days, i did nothing except lie in the ball in the foetal position. My life before had been alright, at least i had solved the gratest mistery of my life hadn't I? I found someone that I never expected to see again and yet why should I see her and have her taken away only months later!? First Adelaide whom I loved from the moment I met her and my mother, who came back for me, however flawed she loved me enough to save me. Despite how I viewed the situation, she didn't do what she did for anything other than love. And Vas. I knew that he was dangerous, but he was my son and I loved him. He was my only tie to my old life, a happier time. And now it was all gone. Adelaide, Sasha, Vasilli and Mary. The last name was the worst. I'd never had the chance to love her, to know what she would be like, just the memory of her cold, perfect, dainty little face.


	6. Ending

Ending

I toyed with the idea of talking to the Blondes but I decided that I should let them grieve in peace. So Instead I picked myself up and hurled myself off a cliff. I had had enough, there was no-one left for me. Sadly, it didn't work- not even a scratch. So I fashioned myself a noose, except I snapped the rope because it was much taking too long. And then there was the cyanide and mercury and numerous other things. But in the end, it grew tiring, just like everything else.


	7. Coven

Coven

It happened one day when I was wandering aimlessly through France. I happened to run into another vampire, a short while after the end. I now belonged to a group of vampires who socialised and even found partners. We talked about everything, well almost everything. I learned at last about the gifts of others and about the rules of the Vampire nature. Astonishingly I had never been taught the rules. And I talked finally about vampire children, though I didn't tell them the story, just that it was a rumour.  
They informed me that a coven in England had infringed upon the rules a little while back, that it was "Taken care of". A nomad was the one to tell me. His name was Charles. "Young one" he told me "all you have to do is keep the secret. Do not do anything to let them learn of such deeds" Who was he speaking of? I was intrigued.  
"Who?" I asked eagerly  
"The Volturi son, they live in Italy and are the royal family, so to speak, and they protect our secret. They are the reason that we are now a secret from the rest. The occourance that you speak of happened because their leader created an immortal child, no-one knows why, but the Volturi found out after the mess the child left behind. But the weird thing is that she didn't even tell her coven! They only found out watching the child burn in her arms!" he was having a little too much fun telling me, but I hid my disgust. I would tell no-one of my involvement, for I would surely die.  
I was revolted by the gossip that these immortals reveled in. It made me despise myself further. I had to do something to atone for my sins- the ones that I had caused and the ones I had not.


	8. Unfaithful

Unfaithful.

"Hey, Will stay close, don't want the humans to catch us on our own!" Victoria snickered. Over my time with the coven, I had developed a relationship with a young vampire named Victoria. She showed interest in me as more than a friend, though I think I disappointed her in this. Though she still came with me when I took a trip, as a sidekick of sorts. We had fun making jokes about humans tracking us down, and the garlic and steak clichés. "So, where to today boss?" we said as we walked down the street of a small township to buy supplies. She did not share the same aversion to human blood that I did, although she was somewhat restrained, and could make these trips with me. We walked into the sporting goods store to buy some bats. We still loved to exercise our strength and let out our frustrations.  
"Can I please have two Easton baseball bats and umm let's see, shall we have two helmets too?" I smirked at Victoria. "Scratch the helmets, but can I have a baseball instead?"  
"Just the one sir?" the attendant quizzed "You might lose one, are you sure that you wouldn't like a spare?" I let put an internal peel of laughter. If he had seen us play, he wouldn't have said that, though Victoria's laughter was not internal. "Why ever would we lose one for!" the assistant looked shocked, like she was a crazy person. I had herd all about the Volturi and seen them in action most unfortunately, and did not want to do anything that might possibly provoke them.  
We walked stealthily back to the clearing, and sat down in the shade, as the sun came out from behind the clouds.  
"Sooo..." Victoria put her hand on my back, which made me slightly uncomfortable, though I did not shake her off. "Will, seeing as its taking you so long to act, I've take it upon myself to...." she had now worked her arms arwound me as we lay on the grass and I was becoming very uncomfortable. "Umm..." I started as she leaned forward. "Victoria, I know that you like to think of me that way, but although I am flattered, I don't think that I feel that way-" before I had finished my speech, she had leapt up and strode across the field with such force that she had dug up the grass. I was a little hurt, but rather embarrassed with her reaction, I mean I had never been very experienced with women, but I had been married and thinking about Victoria that way had made me feel like I was being unfaithful. But I wasn't sure who to...


	9. Tertiary

Tertiary.

I didn't see Victoria after that. She didn't hang around to ask twice and I was kind of glad not to have to face her. The others thought that I was either crazy or hilarious when they heard, but I soon became sick of the endless gossip and bickering. Again, I felt the strains of life taking their toll, and I craved just to wander aimlessly like I had done before. I was a bit of a loner like that sometimes, but there were plenty of angry voices in my head to keep me company.

"What going on sooky?" I looked up. Jamie was at it again. He was always looking for a good fight and I was a usual target.  
"Oh get lost" I rolled my eyes at him.  
"I just don't jet you sook! You say no to her and you're the one who ends up depressed, pure nutter you are Will, that's all I got to say!"  
I couldn't handle it anymore, and I simply turned and flung myself at him, letting the bloodlust within me take over, letting the ugly monster inside myself roam free. I knocked him against an old oak, splintering it, and flying off, as far away from the redneck as I could get.

I eventually booked myself into a hotel in London. It was the first time that I had stayed in the city since I had lived there, yet it felt completely the same. Yet how much had changed? Everything that I had once called important had been lost to me and I was a complete mess. I wondered whether there was anything you could do for clinically depressed vampires. Probably not I concluded.

Times were changing in London, yet I stayed the same. The same moping and miserable shell, completely hollow. I tried to think of something to do with my existence (you couldn't really call it a life could you, when you had nothing to live for?). but soon it occurred to me, that I should train as a doctor. The New world needed professionals, and I thought that It would be the perfect way to atone for my sins.

Oxford had never really appealed to me as a suitable option, but now that I had all this time to either study or wallow in grief, I found studying quite refreshing. "Good evening, I am here to enrol". The older lady looked rather flustered. "What in my dear?" she shook her red hair, as if to state her intentions, but I knew that she didn't really want to be with me, not if she knew what I was really like.  
"Medicine, please" I felt like a school child again, except that my governess wasn't holding a ruler over me, ready to strike at the shortest notice. "Oh, well thats a very demanding career, and course, do you have your letter of recommendation sir?" Why yes of course I had my letter of recommendation, never underestimate the value of a pound. "Why yes madam, It's right here" I handed over my letter, from the president of Oxford himself. "Oh, right this way Mr Atley, Miss Cooper will show you your room". The door suddenly opened and another lady in a blue dress shuffled forward. She was very shy, her mousey brown hair was tied loosely into a pony-tail. "Right this way Mr Atley, May I take your bags?"  
"No, you may not, what kind of a man would I be if I let a lady take my bags?" she blushed when I was finished.  
"Thank-you sir, but that is not nessicary" but she did not take my bags, which was lucky, I didn't need her to notice the temperature of my hands. We walked down the front steps and across a courtyard to a boarding house. "This will be your dorm, while you're here, and there is a security guard outside your suite, due to its nature". She opened the door, and stood outside, ushering me in.  
"ladies first" I offered, and she shuffled in the door.  
"Your keys are on the sidetable" she indicated a grand mahogany sidetable near the door "And so is your schedule, so I'll be going now..."  
she turned to leave and I stopped her "Thank you miss" and I handed her a tip out of courtesy. Her eyes widened when she saw the note, but she looked like she needed it, as she pocketed it immediately and with a quiet thank you, I was alone.  
My suite was decorated with exceptional taste, but it felt like a first class cell to me as I had to spend so much time inside it. I quickly shut the door, locked it without dropping the armful of texts under my arm. I made my way down the staircase, and into the main building, awaiting my first lecture. I found a seat in the middle of the hall as I figured that I would be a nerd if I sat in the front, bullied by the rebels, who sit in the back, and if I did indeed sit at the back, I would be expected to bully the nerds and so forth. I had the social strata wired. As the professor ambled into the room, I realised that I was a tad early. Proffessor Abraham Gindon, looked like I had expected that he would. His creased face and shiny bald head did nothing to erase the preconceptions in my mind about proffessors and then there was the tweed jacket. My class mates took forever to file in. They came in all shapes and sizes; rich, poor, short, tall, blonde, brown, blue eyes, brown eyes..... but I was the sole exception- I was the lone vampire yet again. As the two men in front of me greeted like old friends, the bout of depression hit me, but I put it on hiatus as the ancient professor cleared his throat.  
"Good Evening boys, My name as you should know is Professor Gindon, and it will do you no favours to call me nothing but sir! Now turn to page three and I want you to memorize chapters one and two of the introduction to medicine by the end of the hour. You may begin". Four hundred pages off by heart by the end of the hour? This ought to separate the boys from the men, and as I had a photographic memory I saw myself as one of the men. I sighed as I opened the mammoth book.

"All right, your hour is up. Shut your books and take a paper. You now have half the next hour to decide whether you will be joining the registered doctors society or the unemployed society...." The ancient professor was getting tiring with his snide, condescending comments. I looked down at the paper before me and I decided that I was going to surprise him with my intelligence, rather than my temper. I fought to gain control of my will power, and my deeper nature; there were a few too many witnesses to give him a real piece of my mind.  
Question one read. "If a patient is suspected to have appendicitis, what is the known, acceptable course of treatment? I laughed, which was a mistake. The others looked at me franticly with suspicious eyes, of course none of them found it particularly funny. I pulled myself together. I had 29 minutes and thiry-three seconds left. And so I scralled the correct answer.  
The correct course of action would be to drain the victim of blood, until the victim feels weak.  
Hilarious. I had never known that Vampires could be a medicinal cure. Though I doubted that it would do the victim doing any good to be bitten by a vampire. Look where it had gotten me. _Focus _I told myself and surely enough, with twenty minutes to spare I put my hand up. Although apparently this was not the correct course of action. "What is your name boy?"  
"William Atley sir, can-" he interrupted me.  
"Do not interrupt me boy! You have twenty whole minutes to work, if you are incompetent, do not ask me for help! Now be quiet, you will interrupt the other, more legitimate students, though I do not feel that you will be interrupting my class for much longer!". I inhaled and exhaled deeply, trying to keep up the facade.  
It worked, and the next lesson he handed me my paper back with top marks, and smiled like he had known I was a genius all along.  
I had a feeling that I was going to be golden boy for the duration of my studies.


	10. Travels

Travels.

As completely expected by the professor, I graduated Oxford with top honours in medicine. The ceremony was a little sad, as it reminded me that I didn't have a family to cheer me on (or applaud politely) although I had found peace in myself. It wouldn't do me any good to socialise with the humans, but I was polite and helpful (I hoped). I assembled all of my belongings and called the maid.  
"Yes sir! What can I do for you?" to my surprise it was the same girl that welcomed me so many years before. I had not changed much since I had arrived, but over the past years, she had visibly changed. Her hair had grown, and was done in a more matured bun. Her face had thinned, removing it of the vestiges of childhood and a small ring held pride of place on her ring finger.  
" I hear that a congratulations are in order!" I said, in polite conversation, clocking eyes on her ring when she seemed confused.  
"Ohh, yes sorry, David proposed to me the nigh' before last" she ended with a smile and my stone heart broke.  
"Well I honestly hope you have the happiest of weddings, and a joyous marriage". I tried to sound happy for her but it felt terribly fake.  
"But to the matter of things, I need to book tickets on a boat to the new world- if you would?"  
"Why yes of course sir, and thanks honestly I know that you have finished, but I have really enjoyed working for you"  
Darn. I had felt really awkward when she held up the sir comments, but now it was surprisingly sad. I felt sorry for her- if she had enjoyed working for me she didn't have much of a career, but I hoped, whoever he was that David was really very nice.  
"you're welcome, and best wishes" and with that she left, to get my tickets.

I did realise that I was running away, yet again. I had always prided myself on being honourable, but I felt now that I had touched upon all of the seven deadly sins. I had stolen lots of money to fund my college education, I lusted for the blood of humans every day, I was indeed a glutton when thinking of all the animals I had consumed. I was a sloth- wallowing in the pit of self-despair, and indeed greedy- for I had bribed a man to attend college. I certainly had wrath on my side, in the form of raging anger, oh and I envied those who had anything to live or die for. And the most grevious and original sin, _Pride. _In bible school I had been taught that it was Lucifer's desire to compete with God that caused his fall from heaven, and resultant transformation into Satan? Did all good transform into evil? Was there really a God? It didn't seem like it to me.


	11. Theology

Theology.

The maid returned with my ticket an hour later and I refused to answer the door, letting her shove it through the letter slot. I got up of the large four-poster bed, which was simply for appearances sake and crossed the hall to look at the tickets. They departed on the 31st, so I had three days to get to the port.

I packed my belongings, which took a surprisingly short time, gathered my books and went downstairs. It seemed appropriate to leave the keys on the sideboard, and so that's what I did. I found a coach outside the door waiting, and as the attendant took my bags, I settled into my seat. As I sat there, he hesitated, and so I leant out the window, curious. He stood there, next to the maid, holding hands and deep in loving conversation and it was apparent that he was David. I sighed and sat back down. A normal customer would have yelled out by now, but a few minutes of my existence to make someone else, a good person's day a little brighter wouldn't matter to me. Though they talked, David quicly resumed his job and soon I found myself at the wharf. It was swarming with people preparing for a new life, a fresh start. I quickly hopped out of the carriage, and David brought around my luggage to the front of the Inn.  
"Thank you son, for the ride, I very much enjoyed it. Would you like to join me in the Inn for lunch?" I hoped that it wouldn't seem too strange but I had to see. "I am terribly sorry sir, but I have to get back to work, you see I just asked the girl of my dreams to marry me and she said yes, so I need to provide for her you see..." he sounded not embarrassed in the least.  
"Well yes, you are most right, I was married once, and I understand that it is not easy, but it is worth it". I smiled. He didn't need to know how horrific the ending to my marriage was... "Then take this as a token of my appreciation, from one man to another, and have a lovely wedding" I handed him a wad of money from my coat pocket, but he just stared. "Take it, and make your day special. For her..." and then he took it. "Thank you so much sir, you really are an honourable man, Sometime, just when life gets you down, you receive a little grace and thank you again, I really must be off" I smiled. I hoped honestly that they would live happily ever freaking after.

After checking into the Inn, I went for a stroll in the twilight. I had no idea in particular where I was going, but I soon found myself at the steps of a little stone church. I rolled my eyes thinking of my last conversation with myself over religion, and ambled in. To my utter surprise, as I walked up the aisle, that I was not alone. A casket sat at the altar, open with no people to mourn his death. I would mourn his death though, despite that he was a complete stranger. In death he looked so peaceful, though the open wounds obscured by his suit I could smell. He was barely a man, yet there was no mother, no father, no family. If there was a God, why would he do this? Why would he create this boy, only to destroy him. Why would he create me for that matter, or others like me? So that we could prey on the lives of the innocent humans that we stalk in the night? Had he created us in vengeance? In response to Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit? So that our forbidden fruit ran through their veins, punishing then for our misdeeds, all stemming back to that moment where Eve took that first bite? I didn't know. I thought that I would very much like to ask God these things should he exist, but thinking back to the seven deadly sins, it didn't look like I would. I wondered would Satan know, from back when he was Lucifer, before his fall from grace? I hoped so, that meant that I would get the chance to end this monotonous existence, after all, I doubted that hell could be much worse than this hypothetical conversation with myself...

Soon enough, the 31st arrived in the form of a sunny day, so I donned a trench coat, hat and gloves and hoped that they would protect me from suspicion. But just as I was preparing myself for the thrill of it all, the sun settled behind the clouds. This was the story of my life. Just when I think that I might feel something again, it turns into total darkness. And every moment on that ship was total darkness.

When the ship docked, it was sunny again. But this time I just wasn't in the mood. It seemed just to complicate things to the point of being unbearable. I hadn't decided where I was going just yet, but at this moment, I decided that it was definitely going to be somewhere cloudy.

Three months later, I had set up a little home for myself in the north. My dwindling money supply was soon helped by the job that I took in the hospital, exercising my degree. Though this was what I had intended to do, It didn't feel right. The diagnosis and recovery process was rewarding, yet the humans there were so vital, they were getting better and then some died. It didn't feel like it was fair. I wanted to help the sick, but they were just too hard to be around when they got better and it was utterly unbearable when they didn't. By then end of five years, It was time to move on. I remained the same as always as others aged, so I was left with no other choice.

I travelled through towns, working in hospitals, until I was offered a position in an asylum. I found the idea fitting as if I had have been human in my situation, this is where I would be. Though I like my work, it wasn't safe for me to settle for too long, seeing as I hadn't aged in about 300 years. It was the first day of May 1916 and I had been working at the St Vincent's Asylum in Biloxi Mississippi, working nights. It was my job to check the well being of the patients. I was making my rounds as she was brought in. Her father; a short and balding man, stood torn between heartbreak and panic holding a small girl, with long waves of Brown hair in his arms. And beside him stood an even shorter lady with her dark hair pulled back into a severe bun. She held forcefully another young girl, this one with jet black hair, down past her waist. She stood no more than about four and a half feet and the gown swamped her. She started screaming and trying to kick free of her mother's grip. "Please Mother, don't! Don't do this to me!" she struggled again and I advanced forward and met her parents. "Good morning Mr and Mrs Brandon, I am Doctor William Atley, Would you like to come with me?" The girl looked toward me fully for the first time and for some reason, her pale little face and long dark hair absently reminding me of my daughter, lost to me so many years ago.

I ushered them in towards my office, and sat them down. All the while, my eyes intently followed the girl. "Now, Mr Brandon, Why don't you tell me what has been happening?" I looked over at him, but he just looked at his wife, like he was looking for help. "Well," Mrs Brandon piped up "My daughter has been having a problem. She thinks that she sees the future. But obviously she does not!" she was getting quite angry, which puzzled me. She seemed honestly embarrassed. But soon Mr Brandon opened his mouth, concerned for his daughter. "She is right you know, Sarah is just embarrassed that she's been getting so much attention, but promise me that you can make it better Dr Atley"  
"I will do everything in my power to save her". I told them, but I don't think that they were able to comprehend just how deeply I meant it. Seeing this girl so similar to my daughter found something inside of me that had been so-long missing.


	12. Mary Alice Brandon

Mary, Alice

For the next 12 hours, I was trapped inside my home by the sunlight. But it gave me a lot of time to contemplate what this meant. Sometimes life deals you a card that saves your game. But my life wasn't a game, though it did feel like a game of Russian Roulette at times, though I suppose that it's not the same without a gun. It wasn't a thrill unless you had something good to lose. And now, something intrigued me, there was a reason to hope that the bullet wasn't in the barrel. Well maybe in the barrel, but not the next round....

I decided that I would look after her the best that I could, because you didn't usually get a second chance; and I had waited 300 years for this one.

The next night, as soon as it was dark I ran to the asylum. The adrenaline surged through me at the thought of being noticed. I quickly coated up and headed for my rounds. She was third on my list. Brandon, 15. She was older than I had thought and when I opened her door. She looked at me briefly and then her brown eyes froze. In all my time in the asylum, this was the first patient that was different. The rest of them were troubled, or emotionally scarred. But she was utterly unique. At this time her eyes opened and stared at me in understanding. With this the human charade slipped and I stopped breathing. She stared at me her eyes opening further and then I noticed her hair. Her beautiful shiny black hair that streamed down her back was gone. Her hair was now fashioned into a short layer of stubble. I was outraged but then I realised that the matrons would have done it last night as standard practice was to sell the hair, we didn't make a lot of money and she had lovely hair.  
"Good Morning Miss Brandon." I said as I opened her chart to see what treatments were prescribed for her. Ice baths, shock treatments and other lovely things, poor child. What was she in for? Premonitions it said

Though my thoughts seemed to be taking a long time to me, her innocent human eyes still stared at me shining. She scrambled back, away from me, and at that moment I knew that she knew everything.

"You don't mean me any harm I know that". She said, as if to reaffirm herself.  
"No I do not, but I am here to help Miss Brandon. Now why don't you tell me about yourelf?" I asked, deflecting the question  
"My name is Mary Alice Brandon, born to Sarah and Regan Brandon on the twentieth day of July 1901.... do you want me to continue?" She said cheekily, she wasn't going to be fooled by my attempts to treat her. Her name was Mary. I took a deep breath. Keep it under control. I smiled- she was an intelligent girl. "Now now, you know what I mean, tell me about your premonitions" I strummed on the board, now distracted by her scent. This was the first time since becoming a doctor that I had lost my composure and though about a patient as having a scent. But I wouldn't hurt her that way. I'm sure that the shock treatments were already causing her enough pain. "Tell me about why you are going to do everything in your power to protect me? I know that your plans are not defined but why? You don't even know me..."  
"You, Mary remind me very much of someone whom I loved, but never got to spend the time I should have with her..."  
"Who was she?" she asked, not looking guilty for prying, but genuinely concerned.  
"I wasn't always a doctor working nights, I used to have a wife and a son, but my wife died giving birth to my little girl who was also named Mary, and she would have looked, well if you asked me, a lot like you".  
"Now, now there's no need to get upset. We're going to become good friends. You really meant it when you said that you would take care of me, but I'm not her, I am not Mary, and will never be..." she stammered and paused to look at me  
"I see what I will become and I won't lie, I'm scared."

Over the next few months, I found myself spending more and more time in ward 57-G with Mary Brandon. We spent days talking about her life and her family. She loved her little sister and her dad but she despised her mother Sarah for putting her into the asylum. But she never once seemed unhappy. She always seemed bright and cheerful, and wanted to help me of all people. But the major relief was finally having a companion, and one who did know everything about me. Though I never told her this, I loved seeing her laugh and grow and was scared when she said that she knew what she was going to become. I despised more than anything the choice that had been made for me, and that had changed my life and caused a bad dream to become even worse. But she said that I was going to change her into a vampire, but not yet, in a couple of years. But how do you argue with a psychic? I would do anything for her, except for that. Though I loved her like my own child, I could not bear to call her Mary. Though it pained me, I had decided that Tonight, I would tell her everything. And that i would finally call her by name.

Finally as I swung by ward 57 past H and I to her room. She sat upright on her bed with blank eyes and sat sketching wildly. It had been part of her therapy to sketch (my idea) so that they would be interpreted easier. I had come to the conclusion that she should not be in the institution but her mother would not answer calls. As soon as she stopped she looked up at me, her eyes were excited. I'm getting out, she announced proudly. She drew the outside of a small house with a for sale sign. It was time for me to move on- I was starting to be attacked by questions about my life, and I didn't want to answer them. But Mary was determined to come with me.  
"Listen, you suspect what I am, and you know that I am dangerous, but why do you keep attaching yourself to me? I can't bear to ruin the life of someone else important to me. I will get you released but I cannot let you come with me." She watched me, appraising my expression and then to my surprise she said the difficult things which I had been meaning to say, but were sidetracked by her vision.  
"You do not call me Mary. No matter how close we have become, it still pains you. It's Miss Brandon this Miss Brandon that... I understand that you had a daughter by the name of Mary, but she is gone, and I am here now. You can trust me."  
"For all these years- I was born in 1623 you know, I had always held on to the life I had and the second life that I had and now I stand here without either of them. But because you are here now ...Mary, do know that I trust you, but that my world is not safe for you. But now I cannot bear to leave you, because you feel like my third Child. You're everything I wanted in life but also everything that I shouldn't have. I had had my life and a family, had. I can't take you away from here. As much as I want to..."  
"I understand what you are feeling Will, I really do, but look at me!" she exclaimed, pointing at the scars up and down her scrawny arms. For the three months that she had been here, I could see it, how unhealthy she was becoming, skinny, scarred and deprived of a normal life. She was unique surely, but she did not belong in this place, but even less did she belong in my world.

The next months stretched into years, and I flouted the rules by staying. It was the only was the only way that I could have a part in her life without taking it away. I let out my frustrations out on the world the same way that my son had, so many years before by stomping around in the forest and uprooting trees. Immature as it seemed, it made me feel a lot better. I was finally in a happier place, finally able to think about my old life and I felt that maybe, if I was to meet someone, that I could be happy, instead of this moping shell I had been for a very, very long time. I got very angry with myself. Although I had lost those I loved, It didn't mean that I couldn't have friends, that I had to serve humans for the rest of my life. That I could have a life.


	13. Fun and Games

Fun and Games

I was walking down the main street of Biloxi one night when it hit me. A fresh scent, no less than a couple of minutes old and deeply deeply familiar. Though it felt strange, after not having done it for a very long time, I followed the scent (as discreetly as I could). It led down the street and past the post office. That's when I saw her. Her long waves fluttered gently, the vivid red colour, as she headed down a trail, deep into the forest. She did not wear any shoes and looked very unkempt. But i was intrigued to see her again and I followed her.  
She eventually slowed down, and stood in the clearing waiting. "Um... Hello there" I said. I was normally confident enough, when I was sure of what I was doing, but this was different. She turned around quickly and smiled. "Hello stranger what can I do for you?" she was completely comfortable, as usual. She didn't need protecting. "I was just walking down the main street and you caught me by surprise, I haven't come across many of us in this area." She smiled "And the last of Us I expected to see was you, by the way". She smiled wider.  
"Haha, no we're just passing through y'know, Its only a small town, you know, I'm no Anorexic, and neither are the others". So there were others here. But she had my undivided attention right now. "So how many of you are there?"  
"Well we're all nomads, but you wouldn't know anything about that would you? but occasionally we like to gather for some fun..." She seemed uncharateristicly cold on fun. But I completely understood this. And I also wondered whether this fun would be allowed on my diet. "What kind of fun are we talking about?"  
"Weeellll" she stretched the word "It really does depend, sometimes they like to race from here to the state line, or they played football the other day! You should've seen it, or herd the noise more like". She flicked her head up "They're coming now!"  
They all raced forward and then one leapt forward onto another and the crash was deafening. I had never really noticed that there were two distinct sides of vampire nature. Those who relished it, like these vampires and those like me who regretted that it ever happened.  
They hovered at the far end of the clearing and then one bare-chested male, with mousey brown hair stood forward, his black eyes furious. "Victoria who is this?" he sounded like her was reprimanding her. She stared at me looking for help.  
"My name is Will, don't worry, I don't mean you any harm, I'm simply curious about your little gathering you've got here..."  
"Well if that was your intention, I wouldn't have a problem"  
"What are you talking about? I don't even know you! What the hell are you talking about?" I was getting angrier and venom flowed in my mouth, tensing my muscles in preparation.  
"Hitting on my mate! And don't pretend that you don't know what I'm talking about". I suddenly remembered why I didn't socialise with immortals – manners and civility weren't really valued. I looked at Victoria. She had been friendly and welcoming before, but my intuition suddenly flickered when I saw that she was still smiling- It was a game and a high risk one at that.  
"Well I can see that I've given you the wrong impression and I will leave now" I paused, waiting for a reaction. I needed to get back to the Asylum before day break. It didn't have any windows, the light was all artificial.  
"Good bye then, Sorry that you'll miss the game" Victoria smiled, I was missing the joke obviously. But I was sure that it was on me. I was grateful to get away from this place. And I turned and ran as fast as I could, back to the asylum.


	14. Cleopatra

Cleopatra.

As I shrugged into my white coat, I rounded the corner to room 57-G, and she was sitting there, naturally. "Whatcha been up to doctor Will?" she tease, as she shrugged up the sleeves of her gown, revealing deep purple bruises and angry pink scars. "No need to stare!" she teased. "Mary, I don't know why you are here. We house mental patients and you are completely coherent.."  
"Well, I had always know that I was special. From the time I was six, I could interpret my visions, but my parents just laughed it off, well hushed it up was probably more my mother's style".  
"Well how did you know that you had visions?"  
"I never thought anything of it until I was six, like I said, when my mother was pregnant. They had picked a boy's name and a girl's name, but didn't tell me, and before she was born, I told my mother that I was going to have a baby sister named Cynthia". She was a bit taken aback when I guessed the name, but only when she was born, did she really panic. I began doing it more often, asking things like 'When is Aunt Gloria coming?', before she had called to ask. She quickly tried to hush up my visions, but I tried to stop something happening in the market, and when I told people that the wall was going to fall down, and then it did, killing a man that she decided that she couldn't stand the publicised spectacle, but that she could when it was still private, so she shipped me off here".  
"Don't be offended, but do you ever wish that you were normal?"  
"Yes and no. Mostly No. I love that I am unique, but I feel that no-one understands me yet if we were all made the same, we would all be terribly boring" she smiled "But I feel that everything happens for a reason, even if we don't know why at the time. I have to have faith in that..."  
"I understand" I didn't want to disappoint her, but I didn't agree. But she seemed to see right through the fascade.  
"No, you don't, I can tell that you don't believe me"  
"All right, I don't have a lot of faith in that theory, I have lost all of my family and ended up living alone. Why would I lose my family?"  
"Maybe, I don't know but you will find a new family and be even happier, or one of the decisions you make would end up changing the life of another?" This one made me a little hot under the collar. But she was a psychic. She knew.  
"Mary, can you control your visions?" I asked, caught between keeping up the facade, and brutal curiosity to protect myself.  
"I wish, otherwise I would have seen my parents putting me in this place..." she trailed off wistfully.  
"How do you know that it didn't happen for a reason Mary, that maybe there is something in your future that will make this all worthwhile".  
"I hope so, I really do..."  
All my faith in life rested on a knife's edge. If there wasn't something better out there for her than being tortured in this place, devoid of all her humanity.  
Her eyes then glassed over. She was having a vision.  
"You are going to have a new employee soon" she said, obviously unimpressed. "You know what?" she said contemptuously.  
"Oh entertain me" I teased.  
"I wish that I could tune out all of the boring visions and hone in on the ones that could change people's lives!"  
I laughed. "Well how do you know that these visions are not life changing? Maybe this employee has come from nothing and this job changes their life and revolutionizes the care of people in asylums everywhere" She rolled her eyes at me "So okay maybe not that much, but tell me about this new employee"  
"He is pale, pretty average looking with very dark eyes and longish brown hair...." she trailed off, noticing that she did not hold my attention.  
"And what does he do?"  
"Um, well he was wearing a white coat I think, but ordinary clothes underneath, not a suit. What does that mean?"  
"That my new employee is underdressed." I laughed, trying to confuse her and to think on my feet.  
"When does he start?"  
"Umm... I don't know, I saw him walking through the door at night time, and it's daytime now, so sometime after dark?"  
"Fabulous. Wonder what he'll he like?"  
"Oh, he's a charmer, well the lady at the front desk rather liked him, even fluttered her eyelashes..."  
"Well, little miss gossip, what's his name then?"  
"James Addison, he told the lady at the front counter".  
"She'll remember that name forever!" I laughed.  
"I'm sorry M-, Well I have to go, my shift has ended but I will be back before long, Don't get up to too much trouble in my absence."  
"Don't worry, I will" and she poked her dainty tongue at me.  
"See you."  
As I walked out of her door, I let myself go a little. James was here, or rather he was going to be. Why would he come here? To kill me? If he had wanted to, he would have done it in the clearing. I had to find some answers. It was time for a little trip to the clearing, after all he would have planning to do.

It only took me a few minutes to reach the clearing, and the other vampires weren't there. It would be too simple if they were. My unparalleled senses told me that they had left through the north end. I turned and ran, following the scent (and I was afraid to say it) of Victoria. Her trail took me far, into the wilderness. They were camped out in a rough circle, outside the border. Unfortunately she heard me before the others did. "Willllll..." she looked excited. Surely not after all, the last time I had seen her I had broken her heart, had I not? Oh no, the second last time....  
"What brings you back Will? Changed your mind?" This was worse than her being nice, pretending to be nice, in a snide, horrible way. I was guessing that James had changed her in a bad way.  
"Why is James following me Victoria?" there was no reason to mollycoddle her. She wasn't interested. Well not anymore.  
"He isn't following you. Now that's a bit obvious. He's not here now is he!" she growled at the end, having difficulty controlling herself.  
"Than what the hell is he doing?" and now I was growling, my muscles twitching, waiting to be exercised.  
"He smelt your little friend alright, the human one. He smelt her on your clothes and he hasn't smelt anything like her in his 500 years! He will not stop until he drains her of every drop of blood. He sees it as evening the score- you tried it on with me, and now he's trying it on with your little friend, well so to speak. She won't be your friend anymore once he gets to her."  
"How do I stop him?! I growled.  
"You don't Will. In my time with him, and I met him just after, well you, and he's a tracker, and I have never seen him fail once, not even close...."  
"Well I have to do something, I can't just let him kill her!"  
"You will die if you stand in between James and a target"  
"She is not a target Victoria!"  
"I'm sorry Will, is that _you_?  
"I cannot believe you Victoria! You're not the person that I thought you were"  
"No, I'm not the person that you once knew. I thought that I was that person, but then I met James, and well," she shrugged, smiling sadisticly.  
She had changed. My rejection had made her bitter and twisted, and blood thirsty for revenge, and right now, she had the upper hand.  
"Well, I wish you and James all the best Victoria, you _really_ deserve each other." I smiled wryly thinking to myself. She was starting to look an awful lot like Cleopatra and her affair with Julius Caesar, One good girl turned evil but one hell of an evil man. Cleopatra was never right after that... but then again, she had married her brother to start with.


	15. Assistance

Assistance.

I was horrified. It was all a sick game. And the one I loved, my third Child was about to be my third deceased child if I didn't do anything. It was time to discharge Mary Brandon for good. I had to think fast, and a plan was forming in my mind. James was a tracker, unstoppable, and he was hunting Mary because of me. I couldn't protect her in the asylum- they would get suspicious if they knew that I went indefinitely without sleep. This left only one option – break Mary out of it. It would mean pretending that she was dead, but she didn't really have a family to go back to, and if worst came to worst, she wouldn't be able to handle that for a _very_ long time.

Before I knew it, I was outside a shopping mall, which was what I was looking for. I strolled into the shop, thanking my lucky stars that it was overcast. "Good Morning Sir, can I help you?" the assistant stumbled forward, holding a rack of women's clothing.  
"You look a little lost, If you don't mind me saying. Do you need any help?"  
"Yes, if you don't mind, I'm shopping for an outfit for a lady, she's only about four foot ten and very small though. "  
"Well what type of outfit would you like to buy her?"  
"Well she needs a new wardrobe, but make it nice and very upmarket, were going on a first class trip. And I'd love her to look smart."  
"And did you want only clothes, or bags, and shoes and toiletries as well?"  
"She has practically nothing, so everything please, and money is no object"  
"Very well sir" And she started shopping, asking my opinions on whether things would fit, or whether they would suit her. And within an hour, I had all I needed for Mary to start a new life.


End file.
